When I started my work in Cardiff in 2018 I really had a blank slate. I knew that my job was to be present in Cardiff and to see what happened. As I look back at 2019 I can see the work coming into sharper focus, but it is still early days.
But I'm much clearer about what my work is. My work is to find places where community, spirituality, and activism are happening, and to join in the work others are doing towards promoting community, spirituality, and activism. Plus, to find the spaces where community, spirituality, and activism intersect, and to nurture those spaces.
I'm also much clearer about where my work is. It is, primarily, in Riverside, a small multicultural neighbourhood, nestled next to the city centre, beneath the shadow of the Principality Stadium.
But I'm much clearer about what my work is. My work is to find places where community, spirituality, and activism are happening, and to join in the work others are doing towards promoting community, spirituality, and activism. Plus, to find the spaces where community, spirituality, and activism intersect, and to nurture those spaces.
I'm also much clearer about where my work is. It is, primarily, in Riverside, a small multicultural neighbourhood, nestled next to the city centre, beneath the shadow of the Principality Stadium.
I do get a sense of the work getting smaller and smaller, more and more concentrated on just a few streets, and that seems really important.
Specifically what has developed for me in 2019 is a formal relationship with a Riverside-based cultural organisation called Gentle/Radical. Gentle/Radical is the organisation I have found that is already doing what I consider to be my mission - connecting community, spirituality, and activism. Gentle/Radical are coming from work in the arts/culture. As they say on their website, "Our activities include pop-up events, exhibitions, performances, installations, sung works, published works, film screenings, symposia, walks, talks, meals, readings, gatherings and other actions that bring people together." Most importantly all of this work takes part in a framework of "democratising" - of making art and culture available for all people and especially those most excluded. Their work takes part in the context of a long-term commitment to the Riverside neighbourhood, and the people that live there. The first Gentle/Radical event I went to in 2018 was called "Rethinking Riverside" and was a conversation about resisting gentrification in inner city neighbourhoods.
Gentle/Radical are also very open to spirituality and faith being a part of this work. They aren't Christian, but they have fully welcomed my work with them as a minister because they know my faith is radical and universalist.
My collaboration has led me into the arts world, which I find rather amusing as someone who's academic background is in science and theology. For example I was invited to contribute to Communion - an exhibition and event in collaboration with Gentle/Radical, Lumin Journal, and Where I'm Coming From. I contributed a piece of art/spirituality and also was part of a conversation about Decolonising Faith (more on that below).
Gentle/Radical have been creating a more solid presence in Riverside by taking up residence in Wyndham Street Community Centre for two and half days a week. A lot of the work this year was taken up by redecorating the space and making it beautiful and usable for Gentle/Radical events, and as a co-working space for freelance workers. I've spent a lot of this year painting and decorating (though less than a lot of other people)!
I've spent a lot of my time this year supporting events with Gentle/Radical - film clubs, events, conversations, multicultural community breakfasts. As well as doing practical things like opening up the Wyndham Street space. We have come to an agreement that I will give one day a week to this work with Gentle/Radical.
As well as supporting other events, we are working on a project called "Decolonising Faith" - to bring together radical, liberative politics and spiritual practice within an interfaith context. We want to create interfaith work, not based on bland conversations with "religious leaders" but based on how activists of all faiths can use spirituality to truly transform the world. We are jointly committed to a liberation spirituality that seeks to dismantle capitalism, racism, colonialism, militarism, and we believe that spiritual practice is the necessary foundation for that. We are dreaming about a network of spiritual progressives, deeply committed to prayer and to the work of liberation.
I find this work truly exciting, and the more I think about it, the more committed I am to the need to marry spirituality and activism. I find this quote from Andrew Harvey says it all,
"A spirituality that is only private and self-absorbed, one devoid of an authentic political and social consciousness, does little to halt the suicidal juggernaut of history. On the other hand, an activism that is not purified by profound spiritual and psychological self-awareness and rooted in divine truth, wisdom, and compassion will only perpetuate the problem it is trying to solve, however righteous its intentions. When, however, the deepest and most grounded spiritual vision is married to a practical and pragmatic drive to transform all existing political, economic, and social institutions, a holy force – the power of wisdom and love in action – is born.”
We believe that we are in an urgent moment in history (though a moment that is the logical outcome of centuries of oppressive forces of greed, racism, and imperialism), a moment that requires the birthing of that "holy force". And we believe that Wales, as a small nation with a unique history, is a good place for this to happen. Of course it is happening in lots of places around the world, but we think this is a place where we are called to make it happen.
So, we are planning towards an event, and a long-term work that will create a movement of spiritual activism. This feels so much like the work that God is calling me to in this moment.
Meanwhile the other place I have been putting my energy has been Extinction Rebellion. While I have some reservations about some aspects of Extinction Rebellion, I think we do need a mass movement to create the revolution we need to deal with the climate emergency. I have done little bits of work in supporting Extinction Rebellion, like taking part in the "Earth Pilgrimage" by walking from Cardiff to Newport, and taking part in action in Cardiff and London.
But similarly I've seen by role with Extinction Rebellion as bringing a pastoral and spiritual perspective to the work of activism. The most beautiful moment where this happened in Cardiff was our Interfaith Vigil at the beginning of the Cardiff action which brought together a number of faith practioners to speak and pray for the earth.
I'm also getting more involved with Christian Climate Action as a way to bring together faith and action.
The work is all still developing slowly, and that is OK. Some things I have tried, like running a "Canton Coffee Club" Meetup group, have not worked. But I keep up my gentle presence in these neighbourhoods. I keep going to my local pub and chatting to people there. I keep going to my local FAN ("Friends and Neighbours") Group. I occasionally join in with litter-picking community groups. I keep up my presence among the co-workers at the Gentle/Radical community centre. I work, and read, and write in local cafes and in places like Chapter Arts Centre. I am slowly building relationships with a few dozen people.
And I pray. Oh yes, I pray. Not brilliantly. Not as much as I fantasise about - being an urban monk giving an hour a day to spiritual practice. But I do pray and I do see that as my most important work.
I need to pray. I need God. I am certain of this. I am a Universalist and I believe in grace, not works. I am sustained by a sense and an experience that the work is God's, not mine, and I just need to find where the spirit is blowing and lift my sails and go with it. Spiritual practice is where it begins, and where it ends. And I need to stay committed to that.
Comments
with love Maud